This invention relates to a method and system for automated dispatching of maintenance services for a telephone cable air pressure monitoring system.
Residential and business telephone customers are connected to telephone systems by copper cables, copper wires, and fiber optic cables. The copper cables and wires, for example, are the familiar one or more telephone lines running throughout nearly every home and business in the United States. Fiber optic cables are increasingly used to carry massive amounts of voice and data transmissions between transmission points such as large metropolitan areas, educational institutions, and business centers. Because copper cables, copper wires, and fiber optic cables are connected to nearly all homes, businesses, educational centers, and the like through the public switched telephone network, these cables and wires must be maintained to provide continuous and uninterrupted telephone service.
One problem associated with telephone system cables is that moisture or water contact with the cables may cause unacceptable degradation or even loss of the signal transmission capacity of the cables. This problem is especially serious with the advent of underground disposition of telephone system cabling. It is not uncommon for hundreds or thousands of telephone system cables to be placed in a city utility system or underground conduit system which routinely become soaked by or even submerged in water. For example, in a typical city utility system accessible by manholes, telephone system cables may be submerged under several feet of flowing water flowing to or from the city""s water or sewer system. If the telephone system cables become wet by their contact with the water, a degradation or loss of signal transmission capacity may be experienced.
In order to avoid this problem, telephone system cables are housed in a pressured conduit that protects the cables from contact with water or moisture. A determination is made as to the amount of air pressure and air flow that must be maintained in the conduit for preventing the entry of water or moisture based on the location of the conduit. For example, if the conduit is placed in a city utility system where it may be submerged under several feet of water, a sufficient amount of air pressure and air flow must be maintained in the conduit to prevent entry of water or moisture into the conduit as a function of the pressure exerted on the conduit by the depth of water in which the conduit is submerged. Likewise, if the conduit is buried in soil, a determination is made as to the appropriate air pressure and air flow required for repelling water and moisture under that condition.
To ensure that an appropriate level of air pressure and air flow is maintained in such as a conduit, an air pressure alarm and reporting system is used for monitoring the air pressure and air flow in a given cable conduit and for reporting unacceptable levels of air pressure and air flow in a given conduit to repair personnel. Unfortunately, often the air pressure and air flow in a given conduit has dropped below an acceptable level only temporarily or because some type of acceptable condition exists such as ongoing maintenance of the cable conduit. That is, if maintenance personnel have opened a cable conduit to perform maintenance on cabling contained therein, an associated air pressure drop or air flow drop is an acceptable condition during that maintenance procedure. Likewise, a compressor for providing air pressure may have temporarily shut down due to a power interruption.
Under prior art systems, once the change in air pressure or air flow is detected by the air pressure alarm and reporting system, an alarm is transmitted to repair personnel, and a repair dispatcher dispatches repair personnel to the site of the air pressure or air flow problem only to find that no problem exists because the air pressure or air flow has returned to acceptable levels or because some acceptable condition exists such as ongoing maintenance. Accordingly, there is a need in the art for a method and system of automating the dispatching of maintenance services from a telephone cable air pressure monitoring system so that the dispatching of maintenance services for false alarms associated with changes in air pressure or air flow is minimized.
Embodiments of the present invention provide a method and system for automating the dispatching of maintenance services from a telephone cable air pressure monitoring system. An air pressure transducer and an air flow transducer are adapted for detecting the air pressure and an air flow through a conduit housing a plurality of cables. A monitoring unit receives data from the transducers and compares air pressure and air flow data against required air pressure and air flow data. On a periodic basis an air pressure alarm and reporting system polls the monitoring unit for data on all pressurized conduits monitored by the monitoring unit. A determination is made at the air pressure alarm and reporting system whether the air pressure or air flow in or through a given conduit has dropped below acceptable levels. If the air pressure and/or air flow has dropped below acceptable levels, the air pressure alarm and reporting system transmits a report of the pressure or flow changes to a proactive maintenance application.
The proactive maintenance application checks other data associated with the conduit in question to determine if an acceptable condition exists that is responsible for the drop in air pressure or air flow, for example, an ongoing maintenance operation that results in a temporary drop in pressure or flow. If the proactive maintenance application does not determine that the change in air pressure or air flow is acceptable, the proactive maintenance application generates a work order or work ticket for ordering a repair of the conduit. The work order is transmitted to a dispatch system. At the dispatch system, an operator verifies the status of the conduit in question. If the status is verified as unacceptable, the dispatch operator directs a repair technician to the conduit in question for repairs.
These and other features, advantages, and aspects of the present invention may be more clearly understood and appreciated from a review of the following detailed description of the disclosed embodiments and by reference to the appended drawings and claims.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating components of a telecommunications system and illustrating a telephone system central office and illustrating an air pressure alarm system, work management center, and network reliability center for maintaining telephone system cables within the telephone system.
FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating a method for automating the dispatching of maintenance services associated with a telephone cable air pressure monitoring system.